Dogs Bring Companionship and Calm to Group Home Residents With IDD: RCPA Member Merakey Referenced
Sharon Militello
As communications director, Sharon Militello is responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of the association website and social media pages; editing and preparation of communications; preparing and running webcasts; cultivating media relations; and maintaining relationships with technology support vendors.
Nation’s Disability Services at Breaking Point, Report Finds
Who’s Sounding Alarms: Nursing Homes and IDD Care Providers (RCPA Study Cited)
Source: BizNewsPA, Friday, March 3, 2023
WHO’S SOUNDING ALARMS: Organizations that represent nursing homes and care providers for people with intellectual disabilities. The organizations are warning of continued labor shortages that are jeopardizing access to care. Providers have struggled to attract workers in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Nearly one-third of nursing homes in Pennsylvania have at least 21 openings for direct-care providers, according to a new report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, which says inadequate staffing leads nursing homes to deny entry to people seeking care.
- In the world of services for people with intellectual disabilities and autism, staff shortages and underfunding have spurred an 11% drop in the number of people being served over the last three years, according to research by the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association, Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability and The Provider Alliance.
- The groups described the care system for people with intellectual disabilities as being in a state of collapse.
The bottom line: Provider groups have been pressing for increases in state and federal aid to cope with rising costs and growing demand for services.
- Their new research comes ahead of next week’s budget address by Gov. Josh Shapiro, scheduled for March 7.
Press Release: ID/A Care System Collapsing in Pa.
RCPA To Begin Discussion Series On Integration Of Care
As the behavioral health field continues to move in the direction of integration efforts with physical health, RCPA is embarking on a series of discussions/webinars for 2023. Specifically, to inform our members, we want an open discussion on a range of topics such as:
- Best practices in integration of care and current successes;
- Clinical and financial implications;
- Payer and provider vantage points;
- How managed care models can evolve to support this effort and overcome barriers;
- Future innovations;
- Regulatory reform needed; and
- Standards, consistency, accountability, and meaningful VBP models.
We would envision speakers from the BH-MCOs, Counties and primary contractors, legislators, providers, the administration, national groups (e.g., National Council, other states), and others. This would culminate in a discussion at the RCPA Annual Conference in October.
We want the discussion to be an interesting and thought-provoking dialogue and to bring in speakers from a number of perspectives. We hope you will join in the discussion, and information on our first presentation will be coming out shortly. Please contact RCPA if you have ideas for topics or presenters as well.
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A message from the National Council of Mental Welbeing:
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